From The Mind’s Of Brilliant Men

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There have been many brilliant minds throughout the years, many men who rose above the mediocrity of others and became great theologians, scientist, inventors, and politicians. These men not only left the legacy of their deeds but also their wisdom. Wisdom I think that has been overlooked by most institutions in our current age. The most brilliant men to live shared their wisdom with the world and yet we don’t hear anything about who they were or what they said, all we know is what they did.

Sure, the effects that their lives had on the world is important, but what enabled them to have that impact on the world is the wisdom they had. This wisdom is the same wisdom that they have imparted to us, wisdom that may give us the capacity for greatness also… So where is it? Why don’t we hear about it? What could be so dangerous about educating the next generation?

Well, everything. The longer we live, the more we see the digression and decline of the intelligence of the upcoming generations. The more we decline, the farther down the education systems have to lower the bar to compensate for the growing ignorance and stupidity of the populace. But where did it all start? Well, if you are not improving your mind you are degrading it. If you are not moving forward you are moving backward.

When we stopped learning from the Father’s of Knowledge, improving our minds, we went into a decline. Contrary to the Theory of Evolution, (which by the way is not science, but rather a belief system and a faith), man is not getting better and better, we are getting worse and worse. How do we solve this? Well, to start, we can begin the renewing of our minds and start improving them through learning. Let’s start by taking a look at what some of these great thinkers had to say about Mankind.

Man is an animal, which alone among the animals refuses to be satisfied by the fulfillment of animal desires.

– Alexander Graham Bell

The man who invented the telephone says that man is simply an animal. That goes to show you how deeply Evolution appeals to the scientifically minded. Even though Bell had the capacity and capability to invent a machine that would carry a person’s voice through a wire and to someone else’s ear, he still calls man an animal. But, what hidden wisdom lies beneath this statement? Alexander Graham Bell was a brilliant man, certainly there is some other meaning to his quote. Could it be that in a world where the Theory of Evolution was becoming vogue, Bell was using the theory to compare the depravity of man to animal nature, and the dissatisfaction with animal desires to the longing for something more…a longing for God?

What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving, how expressive and admirable! In action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god!

– William Shakespeare

Well, that was quite a jump, we went from animals to angels, from longing for God to being gods. As we know, Shakespeare was a rather strange man, writing hundreds of plays in his lifetime and composing brilliance into each one. He almost seems an impossible figure, yet when you devote your time to writing fictional plays, you end up living a fictional life. His plays were his life, and his concept of man was glorified in his ability to portray characters, he idolized his work and became a slave to his imagination.

Animal nature, however perfect, is far from representing the human being in its completeness, and is in truth humanity’s humble handmaiden, made to serve and obey.

– Pope Leo XIII

It looks as if Pope Leo is playing the Jekyll and Hyde card here. We see him stating that man is not simply an animal, that he has animal nature, but can harness it. Leo points out the dual nature of man, to will and to do both good and evil, though not simultaneously. Man has a separate evil nature aside from his good nature and yet they are inseparable. Man can not lose his good nature, nor eradicate his evil nature until he is in the presence of God, glorified and sanctified throughout. So, is animal nature a part of us that we control, or are we simply humans, nothing more, nothing less? Here is what a former president of the United States had to say about the matter:

The political freedoms we know, the American concept of democracy, certainly include a faith, related to some religion, that man is more than an animal, that he possesses a soul. If we have not that faith, then why should any of us admit that any other is born with equal rights to himself?

– Dwight D. Eisenhower

Eisenhower was a brilliant man, you don’t become the president of one of the greatest nations on earth if you are not. He knew where he stood and was not afraid to speak it out. Like the Founding Fathers of this nation I call home, Eisenhower held fast to the beliefs that all men are created equal and that we are “One Nation Under God”. His wisdom in leading is a testament to his wisdom in matters of faith. When you know where you put your trust, you lead with authority and wisdom.

There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that is behooves all of us to not talk about the rest of us.

– Robert Louis Stevenson

Here is a man who got it right. On our best days we are still so bad, and on our worst days we are still some good. Man is never wholly evil and never can he be mortal and yet wholly good. So, how do we improve ourselves?

The way of a superior man is three-fold: virtuous, he is free from anxieties; wise, he is free from perplexities; bold, he is free from fear.

– Confucius

The way to superiority, or as it stands now, the way to where normal once was. We have fallen, now it is time to rise. Bring back brilliance once more! Let this generation be the one to shape the future! Rise up and think for ourselves, create solutions, invent new and helpful technology, and be virtuous, blind to power, immune to money, and in it for the good of the world and the Glory of God.